Point

Word of the Day

The word "point" indicates the importance of something, or it indicates where something is located.

Witnesses to an accident pointed out to rescue workers the location where a car entered the water.
I’m looking for the nearest bank. Can you point me in the right direction?
A young woman pointed us towards an area of the city where food trucks are parked and selling food.
The store employee pointed out the differences between two wide-screen TVs.
Street signs point visitors to areas of interest within a city.
Highway signs point towards exits and other highways.
A compass points north.

woman pointing She’s yelling and pointing at an employee who make a big mistake at work.

As a noun, the word "point" may refer to a few different things. In this first set of examples, a point is an idea:

The woman at the meeting made a good point about the usefulness of an agenda.
The film we saw last night made a point of showing the audience the horrors of war.
I see your point. (I understand your idea.)

A point can also be a reason:

The point of the project is to provide safe housing to people who are homeless.
There’s no point in wasting money on cheap food with low nutritional value.
What’s the point of doing this?

A point is also a sharp object or the narrow end of something:

An arrow has a sharp point.
It has a pointy end. (The word "pointy" is an adjective.)
Many knives have a sharp point at the end of the blade.
We like to go fishing from a small piece of land that forms a point in the lake.

A point can also be a time or a place.

There’s a point at which we can no longer borrow money. We’ll have to stop.
The travelers suddenly realized that they had reached the point of no return and were unable to go back.
George and Theresa’s marriage moved past the breaking point, so they divorced.

An exclamation point ends a sentence with emphasis.

exclamation point

June 15, 2018